The present invention relates generally to a method and apparatus for medical imaging visualization, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for automated optimization of medical three dimensional visualizations.
Medical imaging commonly utilizes medical scanning devices such as computed tomography (CT) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to produce two-dimensional images of anatomical structures. Groups of such two dimensional images, representing slices of the anatomical structure, can be analyzed in order for physicians to identify pathologies within the anatomical structure. Originally a physician was often required to analyze the plurality of slices in order to conceptually visualize the resulting three-dimensional structure.
With the introduction of advances such as multi-slice helical CT, routine clinical examinations can easily produce several hundred to over a thousand images per patient study. This can place significant limitations on the productivity of physicians and radiologists since examination of images slice by slice can take considerable time and can easily lead to fatigue. In order to accommodate such large numbers of images, medical imaging has turned to the use of three-dimensional visualization tools to assist physicians in examining these images.
A wide variety of three-dimensional visualization tools are presently available to facilitate examination of the images. Multi planar reformation (MPR), maximum intensity projection (MIP), volume rendering (VR), and surface rendering (SR) tools are just a few of the available visualization tools. These tools are capable of processing and displaying large quantities of information. Often, however, operators do not have the time to go through the entire volume of reconstructed data to determine the optimal parameters of the three-dimensional image generation. Commonly default sets of parameters are utilized to produce the MPR, MIP, VR, or SR images.
The predefined 3D image orientations and number of 3D images often leave significant room for improvement. Diagnostic quality can be significantly degraded by overlapped structures due to inappropriate selection of the 3D casting angles. Anatomical structures often cannot be clearly visualized in the resulting 3D image due to this overlapping. This often not acceptable for proper diagnosis. Although parameters may be adjusted and the number of 3D images may be modified, often such reconstruction may result in an undesirable expense of time and cost. Furthermore, reprocessing of the original two-dimensional data sets may become impractical or impossible if the original imaging data is archived or deleted. Clinical studies may find such reprocessing is not an available option.
It would therefore be highly desirable to have a three dimensional imaging apparatus and method that would automatically optimize the resulting three-dimensional visualization such that adequate 3D casting angles are utilized. It would further be beneficial for such an apparatus and method to optimize the number of 3D images produced such that an adequate visualization of the anatomical structure was provided.